This aerial photo shows the outskirts of the Yanbu factory before the 12th stage from Yanbu to Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, on January 19, 2024.
Patrick Herzog | AFP | Getty Images
Hello, my name is Leonie Kidd and I’m from London. Welcome to another edition of CNBC’s Daily Open.
A lot has changed over the past week, but investors are still not convinced that the ceasefire over Iran can hold. Although oil prices remain below $100 a barrel and stock price volatility has stabilized, a number of upcoming economic data releases and the start of earnings season could signal that the economic impact is beginning to linger.
A lot will go into this weekend’s negotiations in Pakistan, but neither side intends to tone down their rhetoric ahead of the negotiations, and it will take immense willpower from both the United States and Iran to maintain the ceasefire.
What you need to know today
The fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran continues to be tested, largely due to Israel’s attack on Lebanon, but also because of Iran’s persistent targeting of energy infrastructure in the Gulf.
Saudi Arabia’s vital pipeline to the Red Sea has come under attack from Iran, reducing throughput by 700,000 barrels a day.
The attack hit a pumping station on the East-West Pipeline, state news agencies reported. The pipeline carries crude oil from processing facilities near the Persian Gulf to an export terminal in the Red Sea called Yanbu.
Meanwhile, transport through the difficult Strait of Hormuz, which handled about 20% of the world’s oil supplies before the war, remains severely restricted, and the market is under stress.
“Iran has done a disgraceful, some would say, very bad job of allowing oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” US President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, on a trip to the Middle East, said he was “sick and tired” of the UK’s energy bills going up and down because of the actions of President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I’m tired of the fact that energy bills for households across the country are going up and down, energy bills for businesses are going up and down, because of the actions of the Putins and Trumps of the world,” he said in a podcast interview Thursday.
U.S. and Iranian negotiators have arrived in Pakistan for weekend talks to discuss a 10-point ceasefire plan.
But the economic impact is already being felt around the world. Consumer inflation slowed in March as the Iran war transformed global energy markets and sent oil prices soaring, while factory prices in China rose for the first time in more than three years.
And inflation isn’t the only thing the Fed needs to worry about. A scheduled nomination hearing for Federal Reserve Chairman candidate Kevin Warsh has been postponed, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC on Thursday night.
Warsh was scheduled to appear before the Senate Banking Committee on April 16. That won’t happen, but a public hearing is still expected to be held soon, said the person, who asked not to be named because the committee hasn’t released details.
In Europe, investors will be keeping an eye on Sunday’s Hungarian general election. There, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is expected to lose to his main challenger, Fidesz, in what could be the biggest change of government in 16 years.
— Leonie Kidd
